Tuesday, June 7, 2011

1 Corinthians 1:26-28

1 Corinthians 1:26-28
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are.

Have you ever had a dream? Not the kind of dream that you have when you're asleep, the kind of dream that you imagined when you were a little kid? Like wanting to be a nurse or vet? Maybe you still have a dream but you have become so busy with life that you don't think about it anymore.. Or maybe you gave up on your dream years ago and now only focus on your education and getting to college. Perhaps you have no idea what I'm talking about and your about to close out of this blog. Please don't, cuz I have a message that I really want you to know. God planted a dream in your heart the moment you were born. A dream that you have always known but maybe you just never noticed. That dream is part of God's plan for you! And I can tell you right now, that His plan is even better then you could possibly imagine! He is calling you to live your dream, but that will require a teeny little step. A step out of your comfort zone. Now everybody knows that stepping out of your comfort zone is scary and uncomfortable. That's kind of a duh, right? Cuz over the years, you build your little comfort zone around you and it becomes so familiar that you hate to even think of stepping outside of it! But if you want to fulfill God's plan for your life, then your gonna have to step out of that zone. But what if you have no idea what your dream is? There's a way to find out. Ask yourself these questions:
•What have I always been good at?
•What needs (in the world) do I care about most?
•What makes me feel most fulfilled?
•What do I love to do most?
•What lifestyle or career fascinated me the most as a kid?
•What have I felt called to do?
•What do I most want to be remembered for?

Way to many people give up on their dreams and end up living a different life then God had in mind for them.. And maybe your calling isn't that glamorous but when you're living for Jesus and according to His plan for you, then nothing could ever feel more right. Because God uses the weak things of the world to shame the strong. So have faith! Because God has an amazing plan for you!

God Bless,
Sarah

P.S
I know this post is really short but I started it a long time ago and kinda forgot where I was going with it.. Comment and let me know what you think!

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

1Corinthians 13:4-8a
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self‑seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.  (NIV)
I picked these verse because they perfectly describe true love. Love is something that all girls yearn for sometime in their lifetime.. As we get older and start thinking seriously about our "soul mate" these verses can really come in handy.. Seriously, if you feel like you "love" a guy, look at these verses and check yourself to see if it's true love. Cuz I can guarantee that 99.9% of the time it won't be.  Now, since most of us aren't into dating and stuff, (like me') I won't go into any more detail on that.. :). So anyway, what I really want to focus on in this blog is love in general.. Teen girls of our generation just throw their hearts away.. For example, I know that girls at my school are "in love" with Justin Bieber. :p Now, I personally think he's gross and sings like a girl.. I mean really people! Why are girls obsessed with this dude when he's probably a jerk in real life!?? Oh, and don't even get me' started on the Jonas Brothers! Yea I know, their Christians but still..  It disturbs me' how girls just give their hearts away.. Now, looking back at the verses, it's pretty obvious that humans are not capable of all those things.. We're impatient, unkind, envious, boastful, prideful, rude, self-seeking, easily angered, etc.. The list goes on and on! What I'm trying to say is that there's only one person who can offer true love.. And that's Jesus Christ.. So why don't us girls fall in love with Him? Have JESUS be your first love. Cuz no guy on this Earth will love you more then Jesus.. So remember. Guard your heart.. Put your heart and God's hands and let Him hold it for you.. Cuz true peace, true mercy,  true protection, and TRUE LOVE, can only be found in our Heavenly Father's hands..

God Bless!
Sarah

Colossians 3:1-2

Colossians 3:1-2
1 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand. 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.

Now, I'm sure you're probably thinking: "Soooo this verse means we should all walk around with our head's in the clouds all day?"  No, I don't think that's what this verse means.. I think it means that we shouldn't become so absorbed in our own little world that we forget what's really important.... Having a relationship with Jesus Christ.  There's so many distractions that our generation has to struggle with.. Boy, is there ever! I should know cuz I'm constantly  absorbed in electronics, texting, friends, gossiping etc.. It's so hard not to! But what so many teens of our generation don't realize (and what I've just recently realized) is that Satan will take any chance he gets to try and destroy our relationship with Jesus.. Sometimes we get so busy with life that we forget to slow down and spend some quality time with our Savior! Seriously, when was the last time you had some serious pray time (not at church) or read your Bible? Sadly, it's been awhile since I did either of those things... But I'm planning on changing that! Anyway, the point is that it's time for this generation to rise above the distractions and show the world that we can be strong Christians and focus on God, not the world.. We are children of God and we need to ACT LIKE IT! It's time to decide what's more important... Facebook, texting, friends, video games, etc or our relationship with God. I'll let you decide for yourselves..

God bless!
Sarah

Zephaniah 3:17


I was reading this devotional and it brought up this verse...  i've never really read the book of Zephaniah so this was a cool verse to find! Here it is:

Zephaniah 3:17
"The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."

Now, i'm sure all of you are aware that God is always with you.. And that's a cool thing to know! But what i want to focus on right now is  the part that says " He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love." 

This generation seems to have a constant need for fulfillment.. We all do! But most of the time, teens don't fulfill themselves with God.. No, they try to fulfill themselves with other things like eating disorder, drugs,  alcohol, clothes, popularity, dating etc... Because they are convinced they NEED something, anything, to fulfill them. But we all know that there's only one thing that truly fulfills.. And that's God. 

For me personally, I've always wanted to HEAR God's voice.. I was convinced that i NEEDED to hear His voice all the time to survive and be happy..  But after reading this verse, I've changed.. I know now that I can't force God to speak to me just cuz I want Him to! That would be like me trying to force my mom to give me $20 bucks cuz I thought I NEEDED that shirt from Kohls! But really I have a drawerful of shirts almost exactly like it! 

So now I know... I can live without hearing God's voice all the time.. Because He takes great delight in me and He quiets me with His love.. And when I'm in the pit of despair and clinging to my faith by a thread, He will be there.. Singing a love song over me. Because God is not a god who listens to all our praise and just sits back and soaks it all in.. No, He sings back to us.. Just like the last part of the verse says: "He will rejoice over you with singing." How cool is that? :)

God bless!
Sarah

1 Peter 3:3-4

I thought I would write this blog on a girl subject. Anyway, I will be talking about 1 Peter 3:3-4. And, just to warn you, I probably won't stay on one subject.. Here's the verses!

1Peter 3:3-4
What matters is not your outer appearance―the styling of your hair, the jewelry you wear, the cut of your clothes-but your inner disposition. Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle, gracious kind that God delights in. (The Message)

Did you get that? It doesn't matter what you look like! Now, you might be thinking this... "Really?!? It doesn't matter?!? So does that mean I don't have to spend 20 minutes on my hair in the morning?!? Wow!". I know that I personally spend way to much time on my hair and clothes in the morning.. :). But I guess for some people looking nice is just a way of boosting self esteem.. But the HUGE problem with us girls in this generation is that we care WAY to much about what other people think of us. But you know what? We don't need to look good and act cool to  be happy! God doesn't care about what you look like in the morning! You could be the ugliest person on planet Earth and God would still love you! We don't need to flaunt our bodies and show skin just to get attention! Cuz you know what? WE NEED TO STOP CARING ABOUT WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK! Yea, it's hard.. But SO WHAT? It won't kill us to do a few hard things in our lives! We were not created to just be pretty little things for boys to stare at... WE WERE MEANT FOR MORE! God has a perfect plan for your life. It can be difficult to live the way God wants us to.. But, again, WHO CARES? What can be more fullfilling then living for Jesus? NOTHING! So lets make a change in this world!!! Lets take a stand for PURITY! Let's stand for MODESTY! Sure, their not very popular things to stand for but who cares about being popular? Lets be popular with God! Be beautiful on the inside.. And that will be even more noticable then if you had 20 pounds of make-up on your face! And one more thing... Guard your heart.. It's valuable.. Don't give little peices of it away to a bunch of boys.. Cuz they won't treasure you as much as God does.. And He has a special someone out there just for you.. And while your waiting, why not fall on love with God? You never know, some amazing things might happen!

God Bless,
Sarah :)

Jeremiah 29:11-13


Ok, so I have been really stumped lately.. I couldn't think of a verse to use for this week's blog.. So that's why this blog is really late.. :). I was thinking really hard the other day and suddenly remembered this verse.. Well, I remembered the words but not the reference.. :). So I hunted around a bit and finally found it highlighted in my Bible. Now, as many of you know, I have a horrible memory, so I didn't really remember highlighting that verse.. But it was definitely my highlighter! I could tell cuz I have this really annoying highlighter that doesn't work very well and it doesn't cover all the words.. It drives me CRAZY!! I don't know about you, but that just really annoys me.. I'm just weird like that.. :) Oh my goodness! I haven't even told you what the verse is! Oops... :). Ok, so I actually picked out a few verses. Here they are:


Jeremiah 29:11-13
11 For I know the plans I have for you,? declares the Lord, ?plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ?13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.


Now, I'm not sure about you, but I started thinking about how verse 11 can mean a lot of different things. It could mean God has a special someone picked out for you in the future, that He will help you develop into the person he wants you to be, or just simply that He has plans for your life. Now, for me personally, this verse is really encouraging. One of the things I struggle with is trust.. I'm not sure about you, but I have a hard time fully trusting God and believing that He really has a plan for my life.. Cuz sometimes it feels like my life is going nowhere! But verse 11 can help us trust because it VERY CLEARLY states that God has plans for everyone. No matter how impossible your life may seem, God is always there and He has an AMAZING plan for your life! More amazing then you can ever imagine! It can be hard sometimes to fully believe that.. But like verse 12 and 13 says.. If you ever have doubts you can always pray and talk to God and He will LISTEN. And when you TRULY SEEK Him with your WHOLE HEART you will find Him.. And there are no words to describe the awesomeness of meeting God through prayer! Anyways, if you or someone you know is struggling (note: I'm not accusing anybody) with depression, eating disorder, cutting, etc, just know that God has a plan for their life. You may not know what it is, but every single person on this planet was created for a REASON, God knows exactly what His plans are for each one of you. 
J

God Bless!
Sarah

2 Timothy 1:7-9

I have been reading the book Do Hard Things by Brett and Alex Harris.. It's an amazing book for teens about fighting low expectations.. I highly reccomend it to all of you! Anyway, I was reading it earlier and they mentioned the verse 2 Timothy 1:7.. So I read it in the Bible and found that the verses after verse 7 are great too! And they just really inspired me! So I will be discussing 2 Timothy 1:7-9 in this blog.. Here are the verses for your reference:

7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self‑discipline. 8 So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me His prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the Gospel, by the power of God, 9 who has saved us and called us to a holy life–not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time. (NIV)

I guess it's mostly verse 8 that hit me the most.. WE DO NOT NEED TO BE ASHAMED! GOD IS ON OUR SIDE AND HE HAS CALLED US TO TESTIFY! I know I already said that in my first blog, the one about 1 Peter 2:9, but I just can't stop blogging about it! God did NOT give us a spirit of timidity! HE HAS GIVEN US POWER! SO LETS USE IT! Jesus Christ died on the cross for you and me.. Are we just gonna thank Him when we think about it and then kick back and relax??!? Or are we gonna live our lives to the FULLEST and serve Him with all the POWER and STRENGTH He has given us??? There are too many teens out there who say they love Jesus but don't do anything about it... And I'm sad to say, I'm one of them... But I'm gonna change that! Paul was willing to suffer and be thrown in prison just for preaching the Gospel.. Are YOU willing to do that??? Would you die for Jesus?? Would you be willing to be beaten, stoned, and arressted for Jesus?? A lot of people (including me) would hesitate before they answered those questions... But do me a favor... Think about those questions and then get back to me either through email or on this blog.. And remember, God has given us a spirit of POWER! Let's use it!

God bless,
Sarah

Romans 12:2


Ok, so I decided that I would do this blog on Romans 12:2 just because I love this verse! :) I think that Message states it so well, so I will be referring to that version in this blog...

"Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."

Ok, so for right now, I want you to focuse on the first sentence..God DOESN'T want us to fit in! I'm not sure how Paul knew how pressured teens would be in this generation, but I think it was written for us... There's so much peer pressure in this world today.. Our culture tries to show us how to act, dress, eat, what movies to watch, how to do our hair, when to wear makeup, etc... Those are just a few examples out of many.. But I won't bore you with the rest. :). It's saddening to see how many girls (I might as well say that since we're all girls) just automatically give in to all the peer pressure without even thinking about it..  If you blend in so much that nobody notices you're different, how do you think  people will react when you say, "I'm different because Jesus is in my heart. ".  Their gonna go, "You don't look any different.. You don't act different... I don't believe you." Do you want that to happen?? Let God bring out the best in you! One of my favorite songs goes like this, "shine your light and let the whole world see"  So let's SHINE OUR LIGHT! Who cares if people say "You act different.. Your weird" I know I don't care! So don't let this generations culture drag you down... LIVE FOR JESUS! BE CHANGED FROM THE INSIDE OUT! AND SHINE YOUR LIGHT SO THE WHOLE WORLD CAN SEE! :)

God bless,
Sarah

1 Peter 2:9

Hey so this was my very first post when I first started blogging.. For some reason, it didn't get transferred from my old website.. So anyway, here it is!
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Hi everyone! This is my first blog!!!! Well, sort of... The other one is just me being all excited about my new website... So it doesn't really qualify as a blog... Anyway, I thought I would talk about 1Peter 2:9 in this blog.. Since it is the verse that gave me the idea to create this website.. So just in case you already forgot it, i will type the verse here so you can refer to it as you're reading.. 

"But you are a CHOSEN GENERATION, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light."

Did you catch that?? WE ARE CHOSEN! And if you read any farther then that it says we're SPECIAL! No, I don't think it means special as in special ed.. :)  We're special because we get to tell the world about the love of Jesus! How awesome is that? But there's one problem.. WE'RE NOT DOING ANYTHING!!! Now, I'm sure this is going through your head right now, "But Sarah i AM doing something! I just told that person about Jesus the other day! At least I think so... Kind of... Not really.. Oh and i talked to that person! No, wait.. That was my pastor... Well, I was GOING to talk to that person.. But she was busy!!"   I'm not saying all of you are not doing anything.. But the MAJORITY of this generation (Those of us who are Christians)  love Jesus and want to serve Him, but don't reach out to other people with the Gospel because their SCARED. We're scared of what people will think of us. We're scared that we won't know what to say. We're scared that they won't accept it. But we don't need to be scared anymore! Because the Bible says in Hebrews 13:6,

"So we say with CONFIDENCE, the Lord is my helper;I will NOT be afraid. What can man do to me?"

And again, in Psalm 56:3-4

"When i am afraid, I will trust in You. In God, whose word i praise. In God i trust; i will NOT  be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?"

So what do you think will happen when the teens of our generation, rise up and make a CHANGE? Let's find out! And when you become afraid to share the Gospel, think of this verse:

Psalm 46:11
The Lord Almighty is WITH US; the God of Jacob is our fortress.


God bless,
Sarah

My new blog!

I decided to make this blog because I figured it would be easier to maintain then a full website.. I used to have a website (www.achosengeneration29.webs.com) but I was really only using the blog portion of it so I decided that I might as well make a blog! So yea, the next few posts are old blog posts that I have copied and pasted from my website and I will try and post new stuff on here every now and then. Enjoy!